The greyhound industry commenced the first of its legal challenges on Friday to the Report of the Special Commission of Inquiry into the Greyhound Racing Industry.
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The NSW Premier’s decision to ban greyhound racing in NSW from July 1, 2017 was based on this report.
The industry has filed proceedings in the NSW Supreme Court, seeking a declaration that the report is invalid and of no legal effect. The industry’s legal team is headed by the former Commonwealth Solicitor General, David Bennett AC QC.
“The Premier’s decision to ban greyhound racing was based on only one of the 80 recommendations made in the Michael McHugh AC QC Report,” said Brenton Scott, Chief Executive, NSW Greyhound Breeders, Owners and Trainers’ Association.
“The recommendations and the report are being challenged on a number of grounds including the reliance of the Commissioner on the concept of a “social licence to operate” which we believe is inappropriate and unreasonable given that it has been described, amongst other things, as difficult if not impossible to measure.
“The challenge also indicates that the figures relied upon by the Commissioner on ‘wastage’ were erroneous.
“The idea that a Government can ban a perfectly lawful racing industry, which operates in every state in Australia and in overseas countries with legal systems the same as Australia’s, on the basis that it has lost some form of ‘intangible and unwritten’ social licence would be a very worrying development to many in the community.
“This is particularly so when there are no known legal criteria for the issuing and continuation of a ‘social licence’ and where respected authors have described it as an ‘intangible construct’.
“Our industry has widely identified the many factual errors in the report in addition to the legal errors identified by our legal counsel.
“These factual errors were brought to the attention of the premier in the industry’s comprehensive and detailed rebuttal which was provided to the premier last week.”
